Tactical Talk

Shortly after the invention of the handgun the early shooters must have asked the question “Where the heck do I put this thing when it’s not in my hand?” Some of the early answers were to tuck it in your belt or pants. Whatever problems arose from that carry mode led to the idea of a holster. This question continues to plague us today. We’re still asking how do I carry this thing when I’m not using it? The word holster seems to have some connection to the Norse hulstr or sheath. Early holsters were little more than leather funnels. Other materials were tried. Witness the classic wooden holster for the broomhandle Mauser. I can’t find the reference, but I remember reading about J.D. O’Meara who carried two triggerless slip guns in specially tailored leather lined pant pockets during the late 1890s and early 1900s. An excellent, but limited reference is John Bianchi’s “Blue Steel and Gun Leather” for a mid-20th century history o...

Annie, Get Your Printer!!

Printable guns just don’t want to go away, do they ? Remember the hubbub over the high tech printers that let you prototype gears, parts, scale model buildings and cars? It was only a matter of time before someone figured out how to print a working 3-D gun. Parts needed for a 3-D printed gun. They don't look very robust to me. It happened much sooner than later and the cry went across the land, “It’s not detectable by metal detectors! We’ll have children printing out guns and shooting each other!” These, of course, are the gun banners’ touchstones: children and the fear of invisible stealth guns. When I first saw the articles a good 3-D printer cost $30,000, not counting resin. That’s a price little above the range of all but the most ardent hobbyist and companies. The programs to print these firearms were free on the internet. The State Department has forced Defense Distributed to remove the downloadable software and the...

So What Is it?

I’ll give you hint. Bull's-eye shooters know better than to store this in oak boxes or this happens. It’s a badly corroded lead .22 bullet. I took the photo at 35X with a Scanning Electron Microscope to show the crinkly surface. It’s lead carbonate. It should be metallic lead. . This one is in great shape. I can even see my reflection in the bullet. So what happened to this happy-go-lucky little .22LR? As Ricky use to say “You got some ‘splainin’ to do Lucy!” But I’ll let the Navy conservators do it for me: “The chemical process is: Acetic and some other acids, in the presence of carbon dioxide, (in the air) catalyze with lead to produce lead acetate and lead hydroxide. Lead acetate and lead hydroxide together react with carbon dioxide and form lead carbonate. Lead carbonate then releases acetic acid and the process becomes self-sustaining.” I used to hate those ads for genuine Civil War battlefield bul...

Solving Problems

The 2011 Blade Show offers the unwary buyer more tactical knives than you can shake a broken pool cue at. Simply assuming that a knife advertised as tactical or designed by former military personnel will meet your needs will put you in a world of hurt. Still, there are opportunities out there. The best opportunity is to handle each knife and ask yourself how that knife would solve at least one problem, preferably several. Let me give you an example. TDI fixed blade with belt sheath The Ka-Bar TDI self-defense knife answers several problems for both the LEO and armed civilian attempting to retain or access their holstered gun. The small fixed blade doesn’t slip out of your hand, doesn’t slide backwards in your hand, and is small enough to be non-threatening but large enough to get the job done. Ka-Bar has released a folding version of this knife. The advantage of a fixed blade for easy deployment under stress is gone. The folde...

The Cardboard Whisperer

Stay....Stay.....Easy boy!...

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